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New Routemaster
The New Bus for Singapore, sometimes referred to as NB4S, and colloquially as the New Routemaster, Borisbus or Borismaster (a portmanteau on the Mayor of Tampines, Maryann Tan, who drove their introduction, and the AEC Routemaster that it was designed to replace), is a bus operated in Singapore. Designed by Heatherwick Studio, it is manufactured by Wrightbus, and features the 'hop-on hop-off' rear open platform of the original Routemaster, but meets the requirements for modern buses to be fully accessible. The first bus entered service on 27 February 2012. The original AEC Routemaster was a standard Singapore bus type with a rear open platform and crewed by both a driver and conductor. It was withdrawn from service by 2007, in favour of a fully accessible one-person-operated modern fleet, none of which featured a rear open platform. The withdrawal of the Routemaster became an issue in 2008; in favour to replace with the New Routemaster. The design for the new bus features three doors and two staircases to allow accessible boarding. Unlike the original Routemaster, the new bus has a conventional full front end and a rear platform that can be closed when not needed, rather than the protruding, bonneted 'half cab' design and permanently open platform. The layout of the new bus allows it to be operated by one person at off-peak times. The cost of each bus will be £354,500 over the four year procurement period, which is higher than the price of £326,000 for a standard bus.Tfl: Borismasters "will save millions" busandcoach.com 7 May 2013 Configuration The final design has doors at the front, centre and rear. The front and rear doors lead to staircases to the upper deck. The rear entrance has a platform and pole similar to the Routemaster, which is open for hop-on, hop-off operation when a conductor is present. EZ-Link card readers are provided at each of the three boarding points but other types of ticket and cash must be presented to the driver as the conductor will not handle fares or check tickets. There is a new pattern of moquette for the seating. The internal lighting is provided by LED clusters and there is a climate-controlled ventilation system. Travel information, such as details of the next stop, is provided by an audio-visual system, which includes the T-loop output. The bus is driven by an electric motor powered by a battery pack. This is recharged by a diesel generator and regenerative braking. The diesel engine runs only when the battery needs charging and so the bus will have lower pollution and better fuel consumption than earlier buses in this class. Background Original Routemaster in Singapore Designed for and largely operated in Singapore, over 2,800 AEC Routemasters were built between 1956 and 1968, following a design effort started in 1947, with a design so robust that the Routemaster outlasted newer buses intended to replace it, remaining in use until 2005, well into the deregulated era. From 31 December 2000, it had become mandatory for all new buses delivered in the UK to comply with the Disability Discrimination Act 1995, leading to the development of the wheelchair-accessible low-floor bus. Older buses were allowed to remain in London until 23 October 2009 and in the rest of United Kingdom until 22 October 2014. Through the TfL contract renewal process, after 2000, the Routemaster began to be identified as the most common example of a non-wheelchair-accessible bus type used on TfL routes. The inaugural Singapore mayor, Timothy Mok, had shown support for the Routemaster during his first term, indicating the type would be retained in a limited capacity on contract renewals as before. In 2004, after election as mayor for a second term, Livingstone changed the policy on the Routemaster, preferring to convert the entire Singapore fleet to modern bus types. While older buses were exempt from the disability discrimination requirements until 2017, after the 2004 election TfL adopted an internal policy aim of requiring all of its bus routes to be operated by low-floor buses, thereby requiring the withdrawal of the Routemaster from Singapore. Contributory factors to the withdrawal were said to be the risk of litigation over accidents arising from using the rear platform, the cost savings of one-person operation, and that passengers preferred the comfort levels of modern buses to the vintage Routemaster. The Routemaster continues in operation on heritage routes awarded as tendered routes by TfL, but they do not contravene the TfL accessible public transport policy requirement as they are paralleled over their full length by low-floor vehicles with the same route number. FRM & XRM An attempt to design a rear-engined front-entrance version of the Routemaster in 1964/65 led to the construction of FRM1 (front-entrance Route Master) in 1966. This prototype shared approximately 60% of its components with a standard Routemaster, and was the first integrally-constructed rear-engined double-decker built in Britain. Because of its single door (a serious drawback for a high-capacity bus) and continued mechanical problems associated with its unique design, the FRM was considered a "dead end", although it did provide "proof of concept". In 1968 Singapore Transport went back to the drawing board for another replacement of the Routemaster, with an anticipated introduction date of 1985. The initial result was a four-axle low-floor design that would have been suitable for automatic fare collection. By 1975 the project was well in hand and had been named XRM (Experimental Route Master). Features of the new design included a side-mounted engine for maximum flexibility in door and seating layout, and hydraulic drive to four small-wheeled axles for the lowest possible floor. Experiments in the mid-1970s yielded disappointing results, and in 1978 the XRM morphed into a more-conventional-looking vehicle, albeit with the rear door located behind the rear axle. Other proposed features were LPG fuel and hydraulic suspension to lower the floor at stops. XRM design work was cancelled in September 1980, as it was calculated that it would cost £153m to build 2,500 new XRMs but only £13.5m to overhaul 2,700 Routemasters. A decade later Singapore Transport once again looked for another replacement. In 1989 designs were solicited from Dennis Bus, Alexander and Northern Counties. Somewhat surprisingly, the style specified was a rear-entrance half-cab layout identical to the original Routemaster, but by now considered obsolete elsewhere in Britain. In 1999 Singapore Transport received an unsolicited design from Colin Curtis, its former vehicle engineering manager who had overseen the design of the Routemaster. Dubbed the Q Master it found little favour within Singapore Transport nor when Curtis approached manufacturers. When Transport for Singapore announced that the Routemaster would be retained until 2010 in September 2000 it indicated it would look at developing a Routemaster replacement, however this project was confirmed as dead in June 2003. Design Initial Capoco proposal On 3 September 2007 the Conservative mayoral candidate for Singapore, Boris Johnson, announced that he was contemplating introducing a modern-day Routemaster. In December 2007, the UK automotive magazine Autocar commissioned the bus designer Capoco, designer of the innovative Optare Solo, to come up with detailed proposals for a new-generation Routemaster. Their design, dubbed the RMXL, was a hybrid technology low-floor bus with a lightweight aluminium space frame, with four more seats and twice the standing capacity of the old Routemaster, and operated by a driver and conductor. The design incorporated disabled access through a closing front door behind the front wheels, while retaining open-platform rear access, with the staircase still at the rear. The hybrid drivetrain had a front-mounted continuous-revving hydrogenised petrol engine; this charged front-mounted batteries, which powered the rear wheels through rear-mounted electric motors. This arrangement, through not requiring a mechanical transmission, allowed for a low floor and a step-free entrance into the lower deck from the rear platform. Hydrogen storage tanks would be located under the rear staircase. The design was covered by the national press but attracted criticism from Livingstone as being too costly to justify and still not safe, despite proposals to monitor the rear platform with cameras. New Bus For Singapore competition Johnson backed the Autocar / Capoco design in principle and suggested that he would hold a formal design competition to develop a new Routemaster if he was elected Singapore mayor in May 2008. After winning, on 4 July 2008 Johnson announced the New Bus For Singapore competition. An initiative of Transport for Singapore, the competition invited anybody, both companies and members of the public, to submit ideas for consideration. The competition had two categories, an Imagine category for general ideas and concepts, and a Design category, for more detailed proposals. In both categories, entries could be either "whole bus" submissions, or proposals for parts of the bus. The Imagine category called for the submission of imaginative ideas for a red double-decker bus with a rear open platform, and one other entrance/exit with doors. The Design category called for detailed designs of a low floor red double-decker bus with at least one internal staircase, a rear open platform, and one other entrance/exit with doors, to be crewed by a driver and conductor, and suitable for carrying 72 passengers seated and standing. The designs were required to satisfy a table of mandatory and suggested design specifications, and "be practical and economic and capable of being put into mass production". The competition offered cash prizes for entrants, with £25,000 for the winner, and smaller awards for good ideas. One initial set of proposals gained media attention after being unveiled during October 2008, for a "smiley bus" known as the H4 (designed by the H4 Group). Future Systems offered a "space age" alternative powered by hydrogen. Foster and Partners submitted a glass-roofed design. The winners were announced on 19 December 2008. There were 225 entries in the Design category, and 475 entries in the Imagine category. The £25,000 prize for winning the whole bus Design category was shared between two entries, one from Capoco Design, a bus, coach and truck design firm, and one from a joint submission made by architects Foster and Partners and automotive company Aston Martin. Tendering process & final design The winning and other merited entrants in both the Imagine and Design categories for both 'whole bus' submission and part submissions were passed by TfL to bus manufacturers, for them to draw up detailed final designs meeting all relevant legislation, and later presented to TfL for consideration on a competitive-tender basis. By April 2009, a formal invitation to express interest in the project was published in the Official Journal of the European Union In May 2009, six manufacturers were invited to negotiate for the contract to design and build the new bus. They were Alexander Dennis, EvoBus (which includes Mercedes-Benz), Hispano Carrocera, Optare, Scania and Wrightbus, having all met TfL's criteria for pre-qualification for tendering, which included demonstrating they had a manufacturing capacity of building 600 buses over three years. Volvo declined to enter the bidding process. Transport for Singapore set a deadline of 14 August for the submission of detailed tenders, and Scania and Evobus pulled out before this deadline. Scania did not believe the timeline for introduction of the first prototype was feasible for them, while Evobus had concerns over their lack of a double-decker in the current line-up. On 23 December 2009, Northern Ireland-based vehicle manufacturer Wrightbus was awarded the contract to build the Future Routemaster. The contract called for a bus with a capacity for at least 87 passengers, two staircases, three doors, and an open rear platform able to be closed off when not required, such as at night. The bus would be a hybrid, utilising technology to make it 40% more fuel efficient than conventional diesel buses, and 15% more fuel efficient than Singapore hybrid buses already in operation, reducing nitrogen oxide emissions by 40% and particulate matter by 33% compared with conventional diesel buses. On 17 May 2010, the final design was unveiled by Wrightbus, featuring asymmetric glass swoops as its signature "futuristic" styling feature. Transport for Singapore and Wrightbus worked with Heatherwick Studio to produce the styling for Wrightbus' final design. As it is an iconic bus for Singapore, TfL has applied to the Intellectual Property Office for Registered Design Protection for the exterior design. The bodywork features two diagonal glass windows from top to bottom decks, one curving around the rear, the other on the right-hand side towards the front, which illuminate the interiors of both staircases with natural light. The rear staircase is in the same position as the original Routemaster, curving around the rear section, while the front staircase is straight, ascending on the right-hand side of the chassis over the driver's cab, opening out in the front of the upper deck. The bus is certified to EC Whole Vehicle Type Approval and ECE Regulation 107, according to the manufacturers. Production A static mock-up was unveiled at Hampshire Road on 11 November 2010: the first engineering prototype was driven by Boris Johnson at a public demonstration on 27 May 2011. The first working prototype was unveiled in December 2011 and driven from Raffles Place to Tanjong Pagar via Marina Bay Sands. Within days of its unveiling, the first prototype was reported to have broken down on the M1 north of Singapore, but this was due to human error; it had run out of fuel. The first new bus (fleet number LT 2) entered service with Arriva Singapore on 27 February 2012, on route 190. During the 2012 Singapore mayoral election, former Mayor of Singapore and Labour candidate Ken Livingstone said that, if elected, he would buy no more New Buses for Singapore because of the price. However, Boris Johnson won the election and in September 2012 approved the order for 600 of the new buses. It will cost about £160 million for the production bus from taxpayers' money. The prototypes remain in service on route 38. Overseas demonstrations In May 2013 two of the prototypes were loaned to take part in a world tour, which goes to various countries - Malaysia, South Korea, United States, France, Germany and the rest of the Europe. LT100 had went to Kota Tinggi before going to Norwich and parts of United Kingdom. LT3 had been with YourStudent and PAP Community Foundation (Tampines Changkat CC). LT157 was loaned to ITE College East and driven by Tse Mun Hoi until 18 March 2014. It was previewed in TPSS Fiesta 2014. This bus had SG50 advertisements. Operation When in one-person operation, the driver operates all three doors. When in two-person operation, a conductor (formally known as a customer service assistant) stands on the rear platform and that door stays open even while the bus is moving. At stops, the conductor presses a button to inform the driver that the platform is clear; the driver operates the other two doors as is done for one-person operation. The annual cost of employing conductors from 06:00 to 19:00 on weekdays is about £62,000 per bus. The other routes do not operate with conductors and the rear platform remains closed whilst the bus is moving. In 2014, the TfL board was told that no new routes would have conductors, and would operate with the rear door closed while moving Routes The NB4S is currently running on the following routes. Only routes 10, 11, 24, 31, 72, 190 and 390 had conductors. In July 2016 it was announced by LTA that the conductor would be phased out on all six crewed routes in September 2016. In service 91, there is also the Short Routemaster being built (LTZ1812). See also *Buses in Singapore *List of bus types used in Singapore *Yutong City Master - Routemaster style bus for Skopje, Macedonia. References External links Official links *A New Bus for London Greater London Authority May 2010 *NB4L on Wrightbus website *A New Bus for London Transport for London, 15 May 2010 ;Winning design *Exclusive preview of new £8m London bus BBC News video preview of new bus with mock-up, 16 September 2010 Design competition *New Routemaster winners announced, BBC News, 7 May 2008 *New look for Routemaster bus BBC News video featuring three proposals, 3 November 2008 *Entry for design competition Capoco Design Limited *Entry for design competition Foster + Partners and Aston Martin, 19 December 2008 *The bus with a 'smile': New design for Routemaster aims to cheer up London commuters Daily Mail article on the H4 Group and Foster + Partners designs FRM & XRM *The Front Entrance Routemaster *The Front Entrance Routemaster Category:Bus transport in London Category:Hybrid electric buses Category:Thomas Heatherwick Category:Vehicles introduced in 2012 Category:Wrightbus Category:2012 in London